How to make the most of the (end of) summer

Art by Ina Jacobe

The end of May usually signals the start of the rainy season. The bright, sunny energy of the summer slowly gives way to the rain’s dark gloom — a characteristic that also reflects in our behavior.

Once the excitement from all those out-of-town trips, hangouts with friends, and summer internships has died down, we often find ourselves thinking of what else we can do with our little money and tired bodies. You know that feeling of wanting to chill because school’s almost in session, but also not wanting to be too chill that you become a mindless zombie?

While we all aspire to reach the Phineas and Ferb-levels of spending our summer break (building a rocket, fighting a mummy, or climbing up the Eiffel Tower all sound great at this point), the reality is usually us lying in bed, melting our brains by refreshing our Twitter feeds for the 20th time in an hour, almost wishing for school to start sooner just so we could have something to do.

To borrow from Phineas and Ferb: It’s the annual problem of our generation, so here are a couple of tips that’ll help you feel productive without you having to leave the house. They might seem a little geeky at first, but we promise that they’ll be worth it.

1. Hit up the “recommended” sections of your favorite apps

Remember all those “we recommend” sections on your fave apps and websites that you completely neglect because you’re too busy? Well, now you have time. Spotify’s Discover Weekly is a good way to find music you like since it makes a playlist of new songs based on what you listen to. Goodreads also has a recommended tab where they give you updates based on your favorite genres whenever a new release comes out.

2. Catalog your favorite episodes of a TV show

With so many shows available to us with loads of episodes and seasons (looking at you, GoT), how can we keep track of all the episodes we enjoyed watching? The answer: a spreadsheet complete with columns for the episode title, synopsis, and your rating.

3. Research about your current obsessions

Obsessing over a certain band, TV show, or beauty regimen? Turn that obsession into something legitimate by finding out everything you can on the topic. Fill up a notebook with everything you learned – you never know what will come in handy later on. (Tip: Reddit is a great place to start when it comes to looking for preliminary information)

4. Test your time management skills

We all know that we’ll be putting our procrastination skills to use soon, so why not use this time to practice managing your time? This can be as simple as setting time limits for daily tasks, but you can also take things a step further by getting acquainted with time-management techniques like thePomodoro technique or theAction Method. You can also develop your own hybrid technique based on whatever works for you.

5. Write lists

It might seem kind of cliché, but list-writing is actually a great way to make use of your time without having to really think much. You can write up a list of what projects you want to do next school year, or of your favorite experiences over the summer. They can even be as simple as a list of people you hate, or a list of your favorite movies based on a certain category.